Uses of Coconut Trees in Our Bangus (Milkfish) Farm

Uses of Coconut Trees in Our Bangus (Milkfish) Farm

The coconut tree is known in the Philippines as the “tree of life”. Raised in the city, I thought it was just a cliché, and took it for granted. After a few years staying at our fish farm next to coconut trees, I came to appreciate the real value of the so-called "tree of life".

Coconut trees along the dikes of my bangus ponds; their roots prevent soil erosion

Today, our bangus farm is one of the few places in our locality that still has lots of coconut trees planted to it. The trees are planted along the earth dikes surrounding the six ponds in my 2.3 hectare fish farm.

Eight years ago, when I took over, only about 40 old coconut trees remained. A number soon fell victim to attacks of the notorious rhinoceros beetles and later died. We sought help from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) office in Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan. They suggested the use of the pesticide “Karate” to be sprayed at the bottom of the crown or top of the trunk.

Thanks to PCA, we succeeded in halting the infestation and also started replacing the dead trees. Seedlings were available at PCA at P20 per piece then. Every start of the rainy season, we bought 40 to 50 pieces of seedlings and planted them along the dikes.

How the Coconut Trees and their Various Parts are Used in Our Farm

A. For Dike Strengthening – we plant coconut trees along the fish pond dikes; their well-developed roots strengthen the dikes and prevent soil erosion.

B. For Food and Cooking – first of all we classify the coconut fruits in our fish farm into five types:

· Young green nut ("buko" in Tagalog, “malangwer” in Pangasinense) with its soft meat to be eaten as is, or for salad, or mixed in "buko" juice.

 Various types of nuts (brown one at the left, those with wrinkled skin at bottom are the mature green nuts)

· Mature green nut ("magulang", “mataken” in Pangasinense) with its harder meat to be made into sweetened coconut delicacies such as “bucayo”, “bucarillo”, or “pastillas”.

· Brown mature nut ("niyog") – whose meat is used for making coconut milk ("gata").

· Rotten coconut ("kukot") – nut which has been punctured by bats or rats up the tree; it rots and falls to the ground or in the pond. Still useful as firewood material.

· Very young and green nut ("butayong") – coconut fruit that still has no meat, but with coconut water and with tender shell that is edible. Normally not picked and instead allowed to mature some more, but may have been accidentally snagged and felled by a coconut picker.

A very young green nut, with water, no meat, but with edible shell

 
1. Coconut water – my personal favorite, is a natural, healthy, refreshing drink that is known to be good for the kidney. Often I ask my workers to pick some fruits from the tree just to quench my thirst. It's a safe energy drink. See my separate post on how to pick green coconuts from high up a tree without climbing it (to be posted later).

Cutting open a young green nut

2. Coconut meat – can be eaten fresh once the fruit (the young green nut) is cracked open. With a coconut grater, my workers extract the soft meat as ingredient to make fruit salad. They also use the grated meat of a mature nut to make "bucayo" (a local sweetened grated coconut meat). 

Cooked sweetened grated coconut meat ("bucayo")

 
3. Coconut milk – obtained by pressing scraped coconut meat of a mature (brown not green nut) to extract the white milk-like liquid ("gata"). Main everyday use of the milk among my workers is for cooking “ginataang gulay” (vegetables such as string beans cooked in coconut milk), or "ginataang isda" (fish such as tilapia cooked in coconut milk).

Coconut meat being extracted from a mature brown nut using a metal scraper

 
4. Coconut dip and jam – We also cook coconut milk either with brown sugar or molasses or caked cane sugar to make "katiba" a dipping sauce for the popular Philippine glutinous rice delicacy ("suman"). Without dipping sauce, "suman" tastes bland. With the sauce, it becomes mouth-watering.

On the other hand, coco jam (called "matamis na bao") is similar to "katiba" but is cooked until it becomes thick.

5. Coconut milk curd ("latik") – Our farm house cook make this by cooking about two (2) cups of coconut milk in a wok. They are the golden brown solids that you see being formed together with the natural oil that comes out. We use this delicious and tasty curd as toppings for Filipino desserts such as “biko” or “kalamay” (which is made from glutinous rice or "malagkit", brown sugar, and coconut milk). These are desserts that the locals are fond of making for special occasions or in bulk to be sold in the town market.

6. Coconut oil – the oil that comes out from coconut milk cooked in a wok is usually used by my workers for "hilot" (traditional way of healing among rural folks using massage therapy and herbal medication). 

For "hilot", the oil is mixed with crushed ginger and kerosene. Click this for my related post on "Traditional Healing in the Fish Farm" where "hilot" is discussed.

As for the common cooking oil, well, we don’t make this for sure. But we all use it in the farm for frying or sauteing. They’re commercially made from dried coconut meat or kernel from which oil is extracted – also known as "copra". These cooking oil are readily available at the nearby "sari-sari" store (local grocer), or public market or supermarket in the town proper.

The extra virgin coconut oil is entirely different and used for salads or consumed directly as dietary supplement. I've tried it myself. Extra virgin coconut oil is well known for its many health benefits.

7. Coconut sap – although we have not tried this in our farm, it’s a common practice in coconut producing regions of the Philippines to extract the sap through incision of the bud to make the popular "tuba" or coconut toddy. The tip of the unopened coconut bud is cut and the juice allowed to trickle into bamboo containers (as much as a gallon daily). When distilled, tuba produces "lambanog" or the local coconut vodka. Coconut sap can also be used to produce coconut vinegar.

8. Coconut bud at the topmost part of the coconut trunk – we use this part to extract "ubod" (palm heart or palm cabbage) as ingredient of the popular Filipino vegetable "lumpia ubod" or spring rolls. "Ubod" refers to the vegetable part of the inner core or growing bud of the coconut tree. It is found only at the topmost part of the trunk. This happened only once in our bangus farm when one of our old coconut trees was felled by a strong typhoon.

C. For House, Garden Use

1. Coconut shell – we use this as charcoal or firewood for grilling/cooking.

Dehusked shell still with meat inside and half shell without meat (already scraped off)

 
2. Coconut husk (dried brown-colored - consists of the thin hard outer skin, the fiber portion inside, and the hard inner shell)

Coconut husks

 
· Half of coconut husk - used as a vase for our hanging plants (see photo below). Smaller pieces of husks (see above photo) can also be used as vase when parts are sewn together using nylon thread. Then GI wires are attached for hanging.

In addition to its use as plant vase, the half of the coconut husk (still with shell) is used as floor scrub ("bunot") when polishing either cement or bamboo floors. As substitute for floor wax, we use green banana leaves (of the "balayang" or "saba" variety). It's a natural floor wax. Try it.

Half of coconut husk used as vase

· Coconut husk cubes - used for potting medium. The outer skin and attached fiber are chopped into small cubes and mixed with garden soil, compost, etc. as potting medium for ornamental plants.

· Coco peat – the residual dust, coco husk particles, and shorter fibers we gather together and put in a sack. This is also used as good potting medium for our various plants.

3. Coco husk fiber – is the fibrous material between the hard internal layer (shell) and the thin hard outer coat or skin.

· Chopped fiber - we pull them out of the husk, chop them into small pieces using machete, and the result is coco husk fiber bits used as potting medium for our ornamental plants.

· Unchopped coco fiber – by itself we use this as (a) bottom layer for our pots and vases for improved drainage and also prevent washing out of garden soil (b) as planting layer for hanging ferns when latter are mounted on fern chips (c) as planting medium for big ferns that are grown in large vases or pots.

Unchopped coconut fiber

 
4. Coconut trunk

· Coco lumber from trunk - we make use of trunks of dying trees by ripsawing them into wood pieces that go into building of sheds, plant stands, and for other building purposes in the farm.

· Bottom part (base) of trunk – we use this as decorative stand for our potted plants. Round holes are carved out on top of the trunk for our plant vases/pots, thereby serving as decorative stand in the farm garden.

Coconut tree base (standing upside-down) serves as decorative plant stand; holes for holding pots were carved out at the top

 
· Short pieces of the trunk – are used as elevated mounting for potted plants.

Section of coconut tree trunk used as elevated mounting for potted plant (left); also used as mounting for water plant in terra cotta vase (right)

 
· Bark trimmings - bark portion of trunk is sawed off to expose the inner lumber part.

When cut thick, these bark trimmings are used as shelves for plant stands. Long planks are used as sidings (anchored by bamboo stakes) in the repair or land-filling of earth dikes. When cut into foot long sections, they can be used as mounting medium for hanging plants (such as orchids and ferns). Recently, we used some bark trimmings as sidings for the pen we built for our native pigs.

Coconut bark trimmings

 
· Coco lumber sawing dust – the dust residue from sawing of various pieces of coconut lumber derived from the trunk we also gather and put in sacks and stored for a few months. Afterwards, we mix them with compost and garden soil as potting medium.

5. Coconut leaves and leaflets – we use this for:

· Leaf midrib as firewood – we normally use the dry ones which have fallen off trees along the dikes. The thick middle part (midrib) of the leaf is set aside for firewood after removing the leaflets

Leaflets being removed from the thick midrib of a coconut leaf

 
· Leaflet midrib as broomstick – long leaflets of dry coconut leaves are set aside. Then the hard middle spines (leaflet midribs) are made into "walis tingting" (broomstick). The shorter leaflets are used as kindling material.

A couple of broomsticks made from the midribs of coconut leaflets

Choosing long leaflets whose midribs are used for making a broomstick

 
· Wrapper - the young yellow leaflets of the coconut tree are the ones used as wrapper for the popular glutinous rice delicacy ("suman"). Also wrapper for "patupat", another Pangasinan delicacy similar to "suman" but boiled in molasses.

· Exterior or interior house wall - several pieces of coconut leaves (complete with its leaflets and midrib) are cut, secured by bamboo, and woven together to make walls for houses. See separate post on how to make a coconut leaf wall (to be posted later).

6. Coconut flower stalk and sheath - we use these as follows: 

Clockwise from bottom: flower stalk (fingerlike), sheath (cover), two short pieces of coconut trunk used as elevated plant stand, several pieces of long leaflets to be used for broomstick, and (rightmost) a couple of midribs

 
· Stalk - ("gamet") dried brown ones are split into two and used as firewood. By itself, can be used as a substitute broomstick.

· Sheath – ("palay palay") dried brown ones are also used as firewood.

The uses of the various parts of the coconut tree as described above are based on actual and personal experiences in our farm. They are simple, day-to-day applications and not meant to be exhaustive.

The Philippine Coconut Authority (Market Development Department) in Diliman, Quezon City, provides complete and expert materials and technical information on coconut products. They have brochures and product descriptions on coconut flour, desiccated coconut, coconut sap sugar, copra meal, coconut shell powder, coconut shell charcoal, coconut shell, coir, coir dust/coco peat, coconut biodiesel, coconut milk, activated carbon, coconut oil, virgin coconut oil, "nata de coco" (coconut gel), coconut water, and others that I may have missed.

No wonder, the humble coconut tree is indeed the so-called "tree of life".

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